page_title: Too Late for Tears
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Too Late for Tears / Plot
caption_attribution_description: English: Actors Don DeFore and Lizabeth Scott in Too Late for Tears (1949) screenshot
context_page_description: Too Late for Tears is a 1949 film noir crime film directed by Byron Haskin and starring Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea, and Arthur Kennedy. It tells the story of a ruthless femme-fatale who steals a suitcase containing US$60,000. The screenplay was written by Roy Huggins, developed from a serial he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post.
  The film was reissued as Killer Bait in 1955. Too Late for Tears has been in the public domain for many years and has since gained a cult following; there are several different edits of the film with different running times. On January 25, 2014, a restored 35mm print was premiered by the Film Noir Foundation at Noir City 12 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. The film was restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Film Noir Foundation, with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association providing some of the necessary funding. The restoration combined 35mm dupe negative elements from France with some material from surviving 35mm and 16mm prints.
context_section_description: Jane and Alan Palmer are driving to a party in the Hollywood Hills when someone in another car throws a Gladstone bag into the back seat of their convertible. They open it and discover bundles of cash. With Jane at the wheel, they are chased by another car driven, Alan deduces, by the person who was supposed to receive the money. Jane drives recklessly, making a high speed turn and zig-zagging on the difficult road.  They manage to lose their pursuer and Alan takes over. As they drive back into town, they discuss what to do about the money.  Jane wants to keep it but Alan feels it is probably a blackmail payoff and the police should have it.  He has a chance to hand it over, but does not, when an officer stops him for failing to use his turn signal.  Back at their Hollywood apartment, they examine what Alan estimates to be $100,000 in cash. Jane eventually convinces her husband that they should hide the cash for a week; she claims to be fine with whatever he decides to do. They stash the satchel at the baggage claim at Union Station, the claim ticket seemingly ends up in the lining of Alan's coat.
  The next day, while Alan is at work and as Jane is hiding packages containing things she has purchased with the money in mind, Danny shows up. He claims to be a detective and says he needs to look around the place.  He does not say why and he has no warrant, but says he can get one if that is what she prefers.  She allows him to go ahead.  He discovers the packages, one containing a fur coat, and says, "So you've already started spending it, huh?". Clearly not a detective but actually the man for whom the money was intended, Danny slaps Jane around a bit and demands to know where the money is.  She lies, telling him that she and Alan have surrendered it to the police.  He promises to return if there is no news in the evening paper about money being handed over to the cops.  Alan returns home and tells her their banker phoned to let him know that their account is several hundred dollars down.  She responds that she has only been buying things she needed.  Alan threatens to send the claim ticket to the District Attorney's office right away; Jane threatens to take the money and run off.  During their argument, he brings up her previous marriage to a man named Blanchard, who apparently died by suicide, and immediately is sorry.  Jane feels she was always meant to have money, that she married Blanchard because she thought he had a lot of it; Alan believes peace of mind is more important, that they will not have that with the money in their possession.  Nevertheless, he agrees to hang on to it for the rest of the agreed-to week.  He suggests that the next evening they go out together and enjoy themselves the way they used to.
  Danny returns the next day, letting himself into the apartment using a skeleton key.  Jane tells him that Alan has the money and is planning to give it to the authorities.  She explains how she does not intend to allow him to do that, that she is determined to keep it.  She and Danny make a deal to split the money; he gives her a number where he can be reached.  Later, when she has made up her mind about what to do, Jane phones Danny and tells him to wait that night at the palm tree at the west end of Westlake Park, near downtown Los Angeles.
  As part of their romantic evening, Alan and Jane rent a boat.  Inside her purse, Jane has packed her husband's gun.  While out on the water, she appears to feel a pang of guilt; she blurts out that she wants to give the money up, that she wants to send the claim ticket in right away.  Alan tries to take his wife's mind off the topic.  He wants a cigarette and picks up her purse to look for some; his gun falls out. A struggle ensues and Alan is shot dead. Jane takes control of the boat and, as per their arrangement, meets Danny.  He sees the body and resists being involved in a murder, but Jane has the gun on him and promises to tell the police he killed her husband unless he helps her.
  After dumping the body in the lake, weighted by the boat's anchor, Jane and Danny leave t
caption: Don DeFore and Lizabeth Scott
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